NEW YORK RANGERS:
The NY Rangers Winter Classic jersey was finally unveiled today and man is it ever better than the "leaked" one! As expected it has "RANGERS" stitched diagonally across the chest as well as 3 fat stripes (white, red, white) on the waist and sleeves. It has the same collar as the Sabres jersey which is different than any other Adidas collar used so far with the NHL logo underneath it. Some pleasant surprises include the use of the white-red-white stripe pattern on the shoulder yokes as well as the new "N.Y." Winter Classic logo used as a patch under the shoulder yokes - the clever part about that is for the captains & alternates they will switch out the "N.Y." for an "A" or a "C". An even bigger surprise is the Rangers won't use their unique name/number style with the hard drop shadow as well arched name plates.
All in all the jerseys look good but there are still a few things that are a little off for me. First, the huge, fat white collar is too much and it makes the awful Adidas collar get much more attention than it should. Also, the combination of the white collar, the shoulder yoke stripes, the "N.Y." logo & the "RANGERS" stitching makes it a little bit too cluttered for me at the front of the jersey - although that's not too bad. All in all, it is still a beautiful jersey that I'll give 8.5/10!
Here is our design of the jersey which you can also find in our 2017-18 Event Jerseys page along with the others revealed so far (NHL100 Classic jerseys, Leafs Toronto Arenas throwback jersey).
BUFFALO SABRES:
The Buffalo Sabres used a logo similar to their primary one (except with a royal blue, minus silver and with "NY" added near the bottom of it) as their crest. They used a felt material (see photos below) for their crest to give it that vintage feeling. Also, they dissembled their logo into two for their shoulder patch & pants logo. They used the buffalo from their primary logo as their shoulder patch and the sabres from their primary logo as the logo on their paints.
Their jersey as two blue & yellow stripes on their waist and arms. Their shoulder yokes is blue with rounded ends and has their buffalo logo and Winter Classic logo on either side. The collar is very different from any other one we've seen from Adidas. Each side of the collar will join together with a seem down the middle. It gets cut off to be in-line with the shoulder yokes with the NHL logo underneath. The numbers are solid blue (no strokes) in a wide typical hockey number font.
I give this jersey 10/10 honours! In the end this is a fantastic jersey which accomplishes a lot of the things fans have been asking for such as switching to royal blue and changing the Adidas collar. It is clean & simple with a classic yet modern look!
Here is the Buffalo Sabres jersey design...
You can watch these 2018 Winter Classic uniforms in action on January 1st, 2018!